COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s new President Anura Kumara Dissanayake has appointed the world’s smallest cabinet, with three people in charge of all ministerial portfolios — a move that experts say fulfills his key campaign promise.
The leader of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (People’s Liberation Front) and the socialist National People’s Power alliance, Dissanayake was sworn in on Monday, shortly after being announced the winner of Saturday’s vote.
On Tuesday, he appointed his government and dissolved the parliament, clearing the way for new parliamentary elections scheduled for Nov. 14.
The three-member cabinet has Prime Minister Harini Amarasuriya, lawmaker Vijitha Herath, and Dissanayake taking on ministerial portfolios.
“This development is due to politico-legal compulsions. It’s a political compulsion because the NPP whose candidate AKD has won the presidency received the mandate of the people at the just-held presidential election,” A.L.A. Azeez, foreign affairs commentator and former diplomat, told Arab News.
The legal compulsion stems from the fact that Sri Lankan government ministers are appointed from among members of parliament, and once the legislative body is dissolved, the cabinet of ministers existing prior to the dissolution continues in the interim until the parliamentary elections.
“But such an interim cabinet would have ministers who pursued policies and measures — otherwise, governed the country — which the people through the presidential election have disapproved,” Azeez said, adding that Dissanayake did not have much choice as his party had only three MPs.
“It would only be unthinkable for him to get members of parliament from other parties to constitute the interim cabinet. So, he has sought to demonstrate through this compelling development, that he has respected the will of the people, as manifested in the presidential election, and that his cabinet is purpose-driven.”
Dissanayake took over the top job in a nation reeling from the 2022 economic crisis and austerity measures imposed as a part of a bailout deal with the International Monetary Fund.
The new president will oversee defense, finance, economic development, policy formulation, planning, tourism, energy, agriculture, lands, livestock, irrigation, fisheries and aquatic resources.
The new prime minister Amarasuriya, a university lecturer and activist, will oversee justice, health, public administration, provincial councils, local government, education, science and technology, labor, women, child and youth affairs, sports, trade, commerce, food security, co-operative development, industries and entrepreneur development.
Lawmaker Herath, who had previously served as minister of cultural affairs, was assigned foreign affairs, Buddhist affairs, religious and cultural affairs, national integration, social security, mass media, transport, highways, ports and civil aviation, public security, environment, wildlife, forest resources, water supply, plantation and community, infrastructure, rural and urban development, housing and construction.
Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka, political analyst and Sri Lanka’s former envoy to the UN, said the formation of Dissanayake’s mini-cabinet was “inevitable” as he had promised a new style of governance.
“Only he would have done this. Any conventional party would have had 20 cabinet ministers but AKD, the new president of the left-wing NPP, had promised to shrink the overly swollen political structure of government,” he told Arab News.
After the Nov. 14 parliamentary vote, a proper cabinet will be appointed with the composition depending on the results of the election.
The mini-cabinet will be in charge until then, supported by civil servants.
“I think the new president is relying heavily on officials. He has retained some of the key officials. He has also promoted and brought in others with solid administrative credentials,” Jayatilleka said, adding that the president’s choice of his prime minister would also appeal to the public.
“There’s an excellent choice of prime minister. Dr. Harini Amarasuriya, a woman academic ... and then there’s Vijitha Herath, a popular JVP-NPP politician who has been the shadow foreign minister for many years,” he said.
“I don’t think anybody would criticize him. They would welcome the formation of a compact cabinet which is quite unlike what the conventional political parties have done and would have done so.”
